Wildfire News Of The Day (the Firebomber Publications blog) provides comprehensive international wildfire news. Subscribers include over 10,000 personnel from fire agencies, contractors, and government entities on five continents. "BEST NEWSLETTER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY 32 YEARS IN THE FIRE SERVICE" - San Diego Fire Department Chief Brian Fennessy.

Friday, September 13, 2013

WILDFIRE NEWS OF THE DAY - 091313

A new study in the journal Nature Climate Change showed that of 117 predictions on Global Warming, only three were accurate and the rest vastly overestimated climate change, long considered a driving factor behind wildfires (1); while the US Department of Agriculture signed a deal with Coca-Cola that would fund watershed protection in areas ravaged by wildfires (2). Wildfire NOTD subscriber Bruce Courtright, Chairman of the National Institute for the Elimination of Catastrophic Wildfire, sent along a press release from Congressman LaMalfa urging better practices in forest management nationwide (3); and Wildfire NOTD subscriber Britt Coulson, Aviation Manager at Coulson Aircrane, sent along a press release announcing the commencement of operations for their "Next Generation" air-tanker, a C-130Q which is currently based in San Bernardino, California (4); even as a Canadian L-188 Electra air-tanker arrived at Air Spray in Chico on its way to Sacramento's McClellan Air Force Base (5); but the Morgan Fire, which scorched 3,100 acres in Northern California's Mount Diablo State Park, was revealed to be human-caused (6); the exploits of firefighters from Yocha Dehe Fire Department being recounted by the next article (7); an Op-Ed piece arguing for better wildfire prevention in 2014 (8); while a video from the Clover Fire shows just how quickly a wildfire can spread (9). An Arizona Fire Prevention Officer comments in a radio segment on a fire season in which 1,600 wildfires blazed across the state (10); but US Forest Service acknowledged that a thinning project on the Mogollon Rim to reduce the wildfire threat was behind schedule due to contractor problems (11); while Arizona State University Life Sciences Professor Stephen Pyne discussed how fire agencies' misguided policies are unhinging landscapes and provoking firefights they cannot win (12). Idaho's governor argued that forests in that state would have been less fire-prone if managed by the state rather than the Feds (13); the efforts of Idaho Power to protect power poles being examined by the next article (14). A logging company indicated that it was cooperating with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on a 7,442-acre wildfire that blazed through Douglas County in May despite charges that it had withheld information (15); while a Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection worker who fought wildfires in Montana discusses his experiences on the fireline in the next article (16). Although a fire in New Jersey's Seaside Park was not technically a wildfire, firefighters at the scene had to battle it as such (17); Wildfire NOTD subscriber Tyler Miller sending along an article which provides more video and audio from the scene (18). An update on the fire situation in Ontario, Canada, is provided by the next article (19). The European Forest Fire Information Service indicated that 15 wildfires were still burning in Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus (20); more details on the Spanish wildfires being provided by the next article (21); the one which follows discussing forest fires in Switzerland, where an average of 90 break out each year (22); meanwhile, the Lebanese Army was assisting Civil Defense fire crews battling wildfires across that Middle Eastern nation (23). As Malaysia and Indonesia struck a deal to withhold information on forest fires on Sumatra island that flood the area with smoke, the Southeast Asian nations of Singapore, Thailand and Brunei were not pleased (24). Australian authorities confirmed that a bushfire which blazed through the outskirts of Sydney, New South Wales, earlier this week was deliberately set (25); while residents of Potato Point pleaded with officials to create a firebreak to prevent future bushfires in the Eurobodalla National Park from threatening their community (26). And finally, firefighters in Tacoma, Washington, had a tricky extrication to perform: getting a man out of a chimney!